I'm a pop culture geek, married to a non-geek, "normie" guy. I also like cooking and crafts. My own crochet patterns posted here. Please be respectful of my work and keep in mind that most of those crochet patterns have only been made once or twice. If you find a mistake, let me know. If you make something, please send me a link back.
If this blog still isn't enough of me for you, check Geek Crafts for even more of me on Saturdays under AmyLynn98, or find me on Twitter at @JediAmyLynn98.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Last night's entry, since I'm running a little late here, is Adobo Chicken, from Just a Bunch of Recipes.

Like Sam wrote in his entry, this simple chicken cooked in soy sauce with garlic is the unofficial dish of the Philippines. And since I have lived on the East Coast for abut 17 1/2 years where there is a large Filipino community, you would think I would have had adobo by now.
But if you thought that, you'd be wrong. This was my first foray into adobo.

What did I learn from this recipe?
I didn't make bone in chicken thighs, but I had some chicken cutlets instead. The recipe calls for bringing them to a boil in the sauce, simmering for 30 minutes, flip the chicken over, and simmering them for another 20-30 minutes. The thinner your chicken, then I think the less simmer time you need. I kind of felt like my cutlets were a little overcooked, and I still didn't cook them for as long as the recipe called for.

It was good dish, served with plain white rice, but I thought the sauce mixture was a little overpowering.

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Well, here we go, back with the cooking again. It's been a few days. Last night's supper was some Chinese pork sausages from Harris Teeter and Horseradish Mashed Potatoes from Just a Bunch of Recipes.

I don't think I've ever had horseradish before. Sure, I've had wasabi, but as it turns out, horseradish and wasabi are not the same thing. Actually, my knowledge of horseradish was fairly limited. When I was a kid, the neighbor next door used to hole up in his work shed for a couple days every summer, making jar after jar of horseradish. He would collect baby food jars from somewhere ahead of time, and make it for all his friends. So, I thought about Vic while making these potatoes.

It's amazing the things I'm thinking about and remembering as I cook through these books.

I went about this recipe just a little differently than called for. Sam said to use hot cooked mashed potatoes. That could be instant potatoes or the already made ones from your local KFC or grocer's deli. I decided to make mine homemade.What did I learn from this recipe?
I learned that when Sam calls for a "fat" tablespoon of horseradish, he means it. I think I originally made 4 cups of mashed potatoes, compared to the 2 cups Sam called for. The fat tablespoon of horseradish wasn't enough. You couldn't even taste it!

But this is a forgiving recipe, because I didn't overdo it with the horseradish. I had another crack at it to make it correctly. This afternoon, when I made leftovers for lunch. I just added more horseradish to the potatoes before reheating them in the microwave. Problem solved.

This was a good recipe and it'll will get made again, properly, and maybe I'll even make a wasabi version, too. It's got a little bit of the horseradish kick to it that was a really good element to it. It was like if you didn't know it was going to have horseradish in it and started to eat it, your tastebuds would be surprised by it and want more of it, if only to figure out what that taste was.

Good Geek Quotes To Live By

“Being a geek is all about being honest about what you enjoy and not being afraid to demonstrate that affection. It means never having to play it cool about how much you like something. It’s basically a license to proudly emote on a somewhat childish level rather than behave like a supposed adult. Being a geek is extremely liberating.”

--Simon Pegg

"Being a fangirl or a nerd means that you’re not afraid to love things. That’s what it really gets down to: a conscious decision to not let societal stigma tell you how appropriate your feelings are or are not."--Sara @ Fantastic Fangirls

"Wil Wheaton Says: Don't be a dick"--Wil Wheaton

"All I ask of you is one thing: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen."